October Horror 2012: Cthulhu

Cthulhu, released in 2007 and directed by Dan Gildark is a vague adaptation of The Shadow over Innsmouth.  Their use of a gay protagonist is often discussed, but thankfully the film doesn't entirely hinge on it.  It's just a point.



The story is moved from Innsmouth to a small coastal town in Washington state called Rivermouth and begins when Russel Marsh receives a phone call informing him of his mother's death.  He's now living on the East coast with his partner, but drives home to attend to funeral and help his father put her affairs in order.

While there he spontaneously shaves his head, gets involved in uncovering a deep secret about his family, rekindles some old relationships, and gets drugged by Tori Spelling.  It's a bit weird.

I liked the movie, the 1st and 3rd acts where both really good.  It was disturbed, kindof creepy, mysterious, and uncomfortable.  The psychology was good, the imagery was fantastic, and everything going on was pretty interesting.  I guess it had a cliff hanger ending but the action building up to it was fun.

The 2nd act was where I wasn't enjoying myself.  It was weird in all the wrong ways.  Mainly the amount of time spent with Tori Spelling character was too damn high, and it was monumentally awkward because her and her wheelchair-bound husband effectively date rape Russel so that they could have a child.  I understand that the fact the he's a Marsh and needs to have a child for the good of the cult, which most of the town are members of, but it just seemed really out of place and tasteless for a movie that for the most part was being really even and real about how a gay man might be treated when returning to his conservative and highly religious small town home. Yes, it's a religion based around Deep Ones and immortal half-breeds, but still a religion.

It was a good movie, I liked it, but that middle bit was just a bit off-putting.

Lovecraft week draws one step closer to its inevitable end, but before that comes the classic Reanimator.